The Land of Make Believe

Last Saturday while up in New Jersey we ventured to The Land of Make Believe. It's an amusement/water park about 45 minutes away from Evan's parents - Lynn had heard good things about it, but we weren't really sure what to expect. Kids like just about anything, so we knew they'd have a good time - turns out that it was absolutely worth the trip! You pay one flat rate to get in (about $22/person), and it includes everything: access to the water park, all rides, shows...I wish all amusement parks worked that way! You can even bring a picnic lunch and eat your own food, although it turns out that the food there is so inexpensive that we could've eaten there and barely spent any more money. 

We started off in the water park, as Natalie was super excited to swim. The park boasts that they have the largest wading pool in the country, and I would believe it - it was huge! Full of slides for the little ones

 (Henry did actually go on the slides too, with our assistance!)
The last slide here is actually part of a big pirate ship in the middle of the pool. Here's Natalie climbing up onto the ship. I actually climbed up there once at her request - that rope ladder is NOT designed for people our size!

 Here's Henry practicing his walking in the pool.

 And I love this photo of Evan with Henry!

 The water park also had a big lazy river (that we all went on, although Henry decided he didn't like it about half way through, so that wasn't great for Evan, who he was sitting on). There were also big twisty tube slides (with inner tubes to slide down on) that all of the adults went on - so much fun! The best was actually when Evan and I went down on a double inner tube. Natalie technically was tall enough to go, but we decided she was just too young - I know she would freak out. Maybe next year.

After that, we had some lunch and went on rides! Natalie and I rode in the dragons - they do spin around a lot, but I held the inner wheel steady so that we spun very slowly, as neither of us wanted to spin much.

 Just after this ride, it was story time at the big outdoor theater. The kids actually take part in the stories! They had the options of being a pirate, a sailor, a lovely lady, or a mermaid - Natalie chose mermaid.

 This was during the show - the sailors were succumbing to the siren call of the mermaids.

 Henry watching the show with his grandparents!

 The show took place out in the bright hot sun, as you can see in the photo above, so after about 15 minutes, Natalie started calling to me, and said she was really hot. So even though the show wasn't quite done, I got her undressed and we headed out. But it's great that they do this incorporating the kids!

We then took a train ride around the whole park.

 Henry loved it...

 and then it was lights out. Hours out in the sun, and so much excitements = tired boy!

Both kids napped on the way home, and it was still such a nice day that we headed out on the back deck for some fun. This was the second good photo of the day of Daddy and Henry.

Videos of things I missed

We spent last weekend in NJ with Evan's parents - it was a fully action packed couple of days, and I have lots of fantastic pics of the kids to post! However, that's going to have to wait as I'm sitting in an airport right now and don't have access to the photos on my camera.

On Monday Evan took me to Newark airport so I could fly to KY for two days - I had some appointments at Univ of Kentucky with potential customers. The trip went well: in addition to the visits, I got to see my aunt and both of her daughters - we hadn't seen each other since Christmas, so it was really great to catch up! I've also decided that I really like Lexington - it's a great college town.

While I was gone, Evan stayed at his parents with the kids until driving home today - we have to share kid duty this week because Essie is taking her yearly vacation. Instead of coming home when I left, Evan figured why not stay in NJ and have the help from his parents, instead of being by himself at home? Makes sense to me! He sent me some super fun videos of the kids that he took after I'd left - I was so happy to see them, but it definitely did make me miss them like crazy!

First: Natalie playing baseball with Grandpa Doug.

Second: Natalie having fun in the sprinkler (and making me miss her even more)

Third: Evan "spying" on our kids as Natalie shares really well with her  brother

And finally, the kids having a blast in Grandma's giant tub

There's no question that I love my job, and the travel is worth it, and I get to have my own fantastic memories of the kids (we'll be making some when I stay home with them on Friday, that's for sure!), but seeing the things I miss does make me a little sad. 

July randomness

We all know Natalie is quite girly, so one of the things she loves doing is playing dress up. Knowing this,  and how much she loves dancing, I bought this matching outfit for her and Baby Amy. Don't they look adorable together?!

 We also had fun playing dress up in my dress and shoes. Essie has gotten some new dress up clothes for the girls, so naturally she wanted to continue dressing up at home. This was the best dress of mine that I could find, so I think it might be time to hit the thrift stores and see if I can find a couple of cheap dresses for dress up time!

Here's Natalie enjoying her new jumping game, which you can hear Henry getting a big kick out of.

Lastly, we finally got a sprinkler for the kids to play in (thanks to Miss Essie, who had two extras!), and they had a great time playing in the water.

That takes care of July; here's hoping that I do better with keeping up with August! So far that seems to be an attainable goal, as I've hardly taken any pics of them. Shame on me. We do have a big weekend coming up though, so I'm sure they'll be lots to talk about from then.

Sibling love

While the kids don't always get along (primarily any issues arise over one wanting a toy that the other one has!), there are times when they are absolutely adorable together. Since I don't normally take videos when Natalie is whining about Henry taking her toy, or Henry is yanking at Natalie's hair because she took something he wanted, I thought instead I'd show some pics of them being adorably cute together. That's more fun anyway, right?

Fun with food

Henry's favorite food is spaghetti, as you can see in this video from about 4 weeks ago

and this photo from about 2 weeks ago.

How cute is this little guy? Even when he makes a giant mess.

Great achievements

Last night we got two fantastic videos. The first one was taken by Evan on his phone (hence the quality) before I got home: Natalie showing us her best contemporary dance moves as she waits to be old enough to try out for So You Think You Can Dance.

This is why we keep her in dance class: she absolutely loves it, and I think she's proving to be pretty darn good! That's my tiny dancer.

Henry is getting SO much better at walking! Tonight he took the most steps at once that he ever has. I was giving Natalie a bath when he did his first set of 6-8 steps at a time, but I managed to get this video a little bit later. So proud of my little guy!

He's really starting to do well with the walking (and talking, but I'll update that on his 16 month post). We've noticed him start taking a couple of steps at a time when he doesn't think any of us are looking, and he wants to get something. So hopefully we'll be done with crawling soon - I'm not sure how much longer his knees can take it!

OBX: Fun at the beach

Finally, the last of our photos from our vacation at the Outer Banks. We had a fantastic beach day on July 4th: the weather was great, the ocean was pretty calm, and both kids had a blast. Henry fell asleep for a while

 ...and so did Evan!

 Natalie & Grandpa Rich built a castle.

 ...and dug a giant hole that Natalie climbed in

 ...and so did Grandpa!

I was then able to take my favorite picture of the entire trip. I absolutely love this shot.

This may be my second favorite picture: the four of us in our red, white & blue for July 4th!

 And after all of that holiday fun, we ended up with two exhausted children.